


Loss, grief & recovery

by cloudcomet



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Comfort/Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-08
Updated: 2013-12-08
Packaged: 2018-01-04 00:52:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1075134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudcomet/pseuds/cloudcomet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How George coped and how Luna helped him to recover.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Loss, grief & recovery

George lived and kept up his act of being fine. He cried in the Great Hall but he had forced himself to stop. Drawing upon his last reserves of strength, he pulled himself together for his family. They needed him now even if he was a living reminder of what they had lost and what they had left. His façade was as thin as a sheet of ice over a lake in late winter before summer. He refused to acknowledge the cracks that were appearing; he would undoubtedly drown should he do so. Nobody questioned him; they didn’t want to see his pain even when he was the one who was most deeply impacted.

He thought nobody knew; he thought wrong.

She _knew_ and she felt. _Felt his pain and his loss._ But she chose to wait and to allow his charade to continue because she knew his family needed it. She gave him fleeting smiles, smiles to support and to keep the cracks from growing. It wouldn’t be enough and she couldn’t hold the negative emotions at bay for him, only he could.

It was one long year before life patched up to form a semblance of normality.

George left then.

His duty was temporarily fulfilled and he needed time to heal now. Even if he didn’t want to, he returned to their shop. He didn’t know why but he did. The shop’s gaiety mocked him, assaulted his senses with memories, echoes of laughter from the corner, shadows of their shared smirks and grins…

He was _alone_ now.

_It was too much to bear._

His world lost focus and he fell to a fetal position, finally giving free rein to his emotions. Even he had never seen himself in such a state before. Crying was really not his thing, not _their_ thing. He locked himself up in the flat above. He heard the shop operating as per usual. He had no idea who ran it and he didn’t care. The sounds that drifted to him were hollow and meaningless.

He let himself fall.

She gave him another month and then she went to him.

Charmed his bloody door open she did. Went about pottering in his flat like she had done it a zillion times before. Cooking, cleaning, singing and basically brought life into the flat.

He hated it but he couldn’t muster up energy to chase her away. He simply tried to shut her out.

She prodded him and when he didn’t respond, she upturned him with another bloody spell. She continued smiling serenely while changing his sheets and whispering spells to clean up the mess. He had wanted to throw a temper then and he had tried but had ended up cracking and sobbing.

She gathered him gently into her arms and stroked his head.

 _She never said anything; there was no need to_.

He talked two weeks later, voice rough and husky from the lack of use.

They were in the kitchen and she had been washing the dishes while he sat at the table.

“Luna”

She turned to him, her grey eyes misty as always.

He couldn’t look at her.

“Will I see him again?”

“Yes George, but not for some time.”

The weight on his chest lightened by a wee bit.

“Will I be _okay_?”

She nodded solemnly and again enveloped him in a hug.

She felt her shirt wet with his tears and she knew that they wouldn’t be falling again anytime soon.

**Author's Note:**

> Rewatched HP and thought they would fit quite well together even if JK Rowling planned differently. Also late because I don't think people are really keeping an eye on this fandom anymore. Plus most tumblrs I found are dead/deleted.


End file.
